0.25 oz British gold Sovereign

This beautiful Quarter ounce gold Sovereign coin is official legal tender of Saint Helena, a small British Island territory of unspoiled beauty situated in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. First discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, the island was fortified by The East India Company after being awarded a charter to govern the island by Oliver Cromwell.  The island became an essential refueling port for The East India Company ships and foreign merchants on route to the East serving as a vital lifeline to passing ships on the long journey home. Today Saint Helena remains most famous as the impregnable Bastille which held Napoleon captive following the Battle of Waterloo until he died in 1821.

The sovereign is a British gold coin with a nominal value of one pound sterling (£1) and contains 0.2354 troy oz of pure gold. Struck since 1817, it was originally a circulating coin that was accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in Jewellery. In addition, circulation strikes and proof examples are often collected for their numismatic value. In most recent years, it has borne the design of Saint George and the Dragon on the reverse; the initials (B P) of the designer, Benedetto Pistrucci, are visible to the right of the date